For a short period of time, some cable companies had attempted to inch their way into the wireless market, selling hot spot services or wireless data connectivity. But as customers continued to choose cell phone providers for these services — and as those same providers began scrambling for advanced wireless spectrum — the cable folks have begun to realize there is currently more money in selling off the spectrum to Verizon and then making deals to offer those services to its customers under some sort of co-branded offering.

“These agreements provide Cox customers with key enablers to mobility, such as access to Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network and iconic wireless devices,” said Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications. “We look forward to the many benefits this will bring to customers.”

Unlike AT&T’s attempt to snatch up T-Mobile USA’s spectrum by buying out the entire company and removing a competitor in the process, these sales from cable providers to Verizon are not expected to hit too many speed bumps in the regulatory review process, as cable carriers have never been viewed as competitors to the cell phone industry.

While both deals involve the purchasing of wireless spectrum, the Verizon deal lacks the removal of a competitor from the market like the proposed ATT/Tmobile deal. Customers do not lose a choice in cell service provider by Verizon buying spectrum. End result is not the same.

Also the participants in the Verizon Wireless spectrum sales will sell Verizon services and Verizon will sell services from each of the sellers. It looks like Verizon Wireless is kneecapping Verizon the FiOS and DSL company.

No. We licensed it and since we are not going to use it, we are transferring the license for consideration. The US gov, representing the US citizenry, owns the frequency spectrum within the borders of the United States and licenses it out via auctions.

I am not upset about this (and I get upset REAL easy). Verizon has provided excellent service to me over the years, and a HECK of a lot better than AT&T during my 2 years of hell when I tried switching. Since Time Warner/Cox/whoever are absolutely NOT the model citizens of price fairness (why do I pay $200 in cable/internet to TW each month), I am just as glad to have the spectrum out of their hands and into Verizon’s in case that makes great service even better.

What is Verizon even going to do with AWS frequency? It uses others frequencies for cellular and data and none of there current phones could even use AWS frequencies. These frequencies would be usefully to the small guys like T-Mobile, MetroPCS, or Cricket because they already use them. Verizon is just trying to make life harder for it’s competitors and has no practical use for this.